London VFX house closing shop?

News has it that Method London is undergoing a huge restructuring which will result in the loss of many jobs during a huge shrinkage. Method currently has around 70 employees, so if true this would be a substantial loss of jobs. Only a few years ago on April 30, 2013 Method gave news on an expansion from a shared existence at its Deluxe Office to a new facility on Meard Street and they were looking forward to a continued growth through 2013.

Just over two years later it looks like Method is reversing trends perhaps to refocus on its global operations? Their website also appears to be currently available at this time.

This just on the back of Double Negative’s announcement last week of its reduction in employees in both London (40 staff) and Singapore (80 staff) while annoucing the opening of a new Mumbai expansion in June of this year. Not to mention the contracts that would be up for renewal in its London office, which one can only assume will either not be renewed or will be encouraged to move abroad. To Vancouver, perhaps?

If you are a Bectu member and are affected by these changes either at Method or Double Negative, please get into contact with the VFX Bectu representative, Paul Evans, who can be of service to you in this time of London redundancies and closures. Bectu can help clear up any questions you have about UK Laws and make sure you are aware of your employee rights as well as be your advocate in these situations. That’s one of the great benefits of being part of the union.

Published by VFX branch

Yup, heard the same news. Method UK will be closing down after they’ve fulfilled their current contract obligations.

Josh Bosh

I’m sorry… What’s that I hear… Suddenly the London artists are complaining about work leaving to Vancouver because of subsidies?

Geeze… Just a year or two ago they were calling LA artists babies for complaining about foreign subsidies like the ones London has.

Live by the sword die by the sword

Rick Sander

London artists should be complaining that the government shouldn’t be subsidizing large, tax exempt foreign companies.

Raj Solanki

I have started my own studio in india if you have any contact who is looking for freelancer or any company providing outsource if you have ny one then please do let me know ..if possible take full project we do all kind of work.

Raj, with much respect, you should take that list down to three or four things. 🙂 No one calls a company for texturing. You call a company to provide creative management and delivery on budget and schedule. Consider taking your pitch down to photo real concepts, cinematic CG lighting and beautiful compositing work. You’ve actually listed “LightNing”, rendering and texturing a few times. Polish and refine your pitch. If you can’t do the easy stuff – how will you do the hard stuff?